THE Doctrine of Maya - HolyBooks.com

""""OBJECTIONS WITHIN THE VEDANTA 129this argument. To say that there are some scriptural passages bearing out the assertion may equallybe met by the counter-proposition that there arealso passages countenancing the attributelessness ofBrahman. If, then, both these assertions neutralizeeach other from the scriptural point of view, onemay well ask, What then is the real trend and purport of the Vaidic thought? It seems to us thatthis question could not be better answered than byrepeating the doctrine of Sarikara when he attemptedto synthesize the whole of the Sruti by taking a wideconspectus of its purport. All passages whichspeak of the qualified Brahman may be placed underApard vidyd, while para will include only those thatexpound the metaphysical truth as it is. Brahmanmay, from a lower standpoint, be conceived aswith attributes," but the ultimate truth remainsthat He is reallywithout attributes."Besides, theconception of the Absolute in the strict sense leaveshardly any room for "attributes."Impose anyattributes and you at once make the Absolutenon- absolute," i.e., destroy his very nature bymaking paricchinna (limited) that which is aparicchinna(without limits).TatAgain, Ramanuja denies that the text,tvam asi,"denotes the oneness of the individual withthe attributeless Universal, and holds that itsimplybrings out Brahman s capability of existing in twoforms or modes. Now, this seems to us to be anambiguous use of language.That Brahman exists